Calling all Oenophiles....

[curiouscat]

X still does Pacific coastal wine cruises.. I believe the Milennium does them now... it really was a wonderful cruise..the ship stayed overnite in San Francisco. I rented a car and drove up to Napa. Mustards for lunch,duckhorn,chimney rock amongst the many wineries I visited.

 

 

CC

[curiouscat]

Thanks...at 175 a bottle on board it makes sense to make our carry aboards worthwhile!

 

We may name our next boat far niente...without a care....which is what i will be in 38 days!

 

 

I see you live in the northeast... I presume your driving since you can't board a plane with wine. We are flying to Ft.laud and I'll wine shop down there for my 2 bottles

[WineDown17]

Actually we are flying...diapers and bubble wrap ina hard sided suitcase makes for great wine transport!..we can take it out on the ride over to the ship and put it in our carry ons then....

[WineDown17]

X still does Pacific coastal wine cruises.. I believe the Milennium does them now... it really was a wonderful cruise..the ship stayed overnite in San Francisco. I rented a car and drove up to Napa. Mustards for lunch,duckhorn,chimney rock amongst the many wineries I visited.

 

 

CC

 

Would love to hear more about this..thinking of doing this for our ten year anniversary..but afraid it would feel too rushed?

[Wine-O]

X still does Pacific coastal wine cruises.. I believe the Milennium does them now... it really was a wonderful cruise..the ship stayed overnite in San Francisco. I rented a car and drove up to Napa. Mustards for lunch,duckhorn,chimney rock amongst the many wineries I visited.

 

 

CC

 

We just returned from the Millennium Wine Cruise. Fantastic!!! This is what I use to carry my wine around on the airplanes -- check it as a piece of luggage. I don't leave home without it. :) http://www.boxvendor.com/wineshipper-discount12packuprightstyrofoamincludesbox.aspx

 

Our favorite area north of SF is the wineries around Healdsburg -- Russian River, Dry Creek, and Alexander Valley. The Cabs & Zins are superb. http://www.wineroad.com/ It's getting to be commercial like Napa, but not quite yet. You can easily do it by renting a car. You can map it out ahead of time and hit 5-6 wineries. Additionally, there are several tasting rooms in and around Healdsburg.

[curiouscat]

Wine O...... We didn't get that far up to that area but want to do that area next time I visit via a land trip. I have some contacts there that own a winery. He was a retired dentist who bought a vineyard. Very small production vineyard.

 

What programs did they have on board? was it still sponsored by kendall jackson? I would love to do it again but hubby is not a wine O like me. He would be bored.

 

CC

[CHEZMARYLOU]

I am really enjoying this thread...

 

Can someone confirm the statement that one can order a glass or bottle of wine froma venue other than the mdr?

 

We are planning to bring a bottle of Far Niente and Opus One with us...but will also order wine... Want to know if we are limited to the mdr wine list in the mdr!!

 

You are not limited to the wines on the MDR list. Just ask for the menu from the specialty restaurants.

[Wine-O]

Wine O...... We didn't get that far up to that area but want to do that area next time I visit via a land trip. I have some contacts there that own a winery. He was a retired dentist who bought a vineyard. Very small production vineyard.

 

What programs did they have on board? was it still sponsored by kendall jackson? I would love to do it again but hubby is not a wine O like me. He would be bored.

 

CC

 

Wifey's not a wine-o either. she won't touch the stuff -- I use her has a designated driver. :D

 

Didn't do any of the on board stuff. They had plenty, though.

[curiouscat]

Would love to hear more about this..thinking of doing this for our ten year anniversary..but afraid it would feel too rushed?

 

Winedown.... it depends what your looking for...if you really want to immerse yourself in the wine and food of the place your visiting then a land vaca is the way to go... if you want to combine an overview of the places and combine the love of cruising, then the cruise is the way to go'

 

If you would like some more ideas and the daily paper from our wine cruise let me know

[Cruise Junky]

We just returned from the Millennium Wine Cruise. Fantastic!!! This is what I use to carry my wine around on the airplanes -- check it as a piece of luggage. I don't leave home without it. :) http://www.boxvendor.com/wineshipper-discount12packuprightstyrofoamincludesbox.aspx

 

Our favorite area north of SF is the wineries around Healdsburg -- Russian River, Dry Creek, and Alexander Valley. The Cabs & Zins are superb. http://www.wineroad.com/ It's getting to be commercial like Napa, but not quite yet. You can easily do it by renting a car. You can map it out ahead of time and hit 5-6 wineries. Additionally, there are several tasting rooms in and around Healdsburg.

 

 

I keep looking at this cruise on Celebirty...how were they in letting you bring wine back on board? did they allow it on a "wine" cruise, or did they hold it?

 

Tx

[curiouscat]

They let us bring it on board.....but that is not a guarantee. I did take a couple of bottles and pack it in my suitcase. Otherwise a lot of folks had the winery ship it home

 

On our NCL cruise to the Med we bought the wine and they looked the other way... how can u go to Italy,France and Spain and not buy wine...!!!

 

CC

[Wine-O]

I keep looking at this cruise on Celebirty...how were they in letting you bring wine back on board? did they allow it on a "wine" cruise, or did they hold it?

 

Tx

They grabbed and held my 6-pack of wine, but I got the 3 hand-carried single bottles on. I didn't plan to open them on the ship anyway. They had port security in SF, so it is touch & go.

 

I knew someone who decanted a couple of bottles ashore to his rumrunners and put them in the pockets of his cargo pants. :)

[mzkmann]

I see you live in the northeast... I presume your driving since you can't board a plane with wine. We are flying to Ft.laud and I'll wine shop down there for my 2 bottles

 

 

You can't do carry-on, but you can certainly check it in your luggage. I simply put our two btls in a neoprene double wine bag and put that in an extra-extra large ziploc bag in case one of the corks came loose in the non-pressurized cargo hold. No problem, but if there had been it would have been confined to the ziploc.

[WineDown17]

I also wrap my wine ina clean diaper...just in case there is breakage, the diapers absorb the wine.....and provide extra cushion!

[chamima]

I was just reviewing the wine list from the MDR and the one thing that struck me was the omittance of the vintage year of the wine...!!! As we all know the year of the wine is a very important component in choosing a wine along with varietal, region etc.....

 

So is the actual wine list on the ship have the vintage year?? Am I missing something?? :confused:

 

Thanks

 

CC

 

Lauren-

You should really think about switching back to the 5th. If you're into nice wines you might have a great time! ;)

[wineluvr]

I have found just the opposite. On our last Equinox cruise I had a chance to speak with the Cellar Master about the Sommeliers. He said that all 23 Sommeliers on each Celebrity ship (unlike other cruise lines) have received Sommelier certification from the United States Sommeliers Association (USSA) in Napa Valley. I was quite impressed with the Sommelier at our table and his knowledge of Bordeaux (we chose Lynch Bages on the first formal night) and his recommendations from the various wine regions of Spain (we sailed from Barcelona).

[Mimi47]

We took our first Celebrity cruise this summer to Alaska on Millennium and thanks to all the posters on this board I knew about taking two bottles and bought the wine diapers from the company mentioned in one post. My husband put in a backyard vineyard here south of San Jose with cab and merlot (You should try to visit some wineries in the Santa Clara and Santa Cruz area sometime) so we were able to take our own wine. We enjoyed one on our balcony during the cruise and the other at the specialty restaurant. But what I found very interesting is that since we didn't consume the whole bottle there and had paid the corkage fee, it was tagged with our room number and available for us during our select dining in the MDR.

[curiouscat]

I have found just the opposite. On our last Equinox cruise I had a chance to speak with the Cellar Master about the Sommeliers. He said that all 23 Sommeliers on each Celebrity ship (unlike other cruise lines) have received Sommelier certification from the United States Sommeliers Association (USSA) in Napa Valley. I was quite impressed with the Sommelier at our table and his knowledge of Bordeaux (we chose Lynch Bages on the first formal night) and his recommendations from the various wine regions of Spain (we sailed from Barcelona).

 

 

Interesting...but if you think about having "certified"sommeliers on all their ships would be a very expensive business proposition... I highly doubt that they go thru more than some wine course where they are handed some type of wine steward certification...

 

I'll be testing them on the Solstice in dec...if they don't know more than me than that would give me the answer

[curiouscat]

Lauren-

You should really think about switching back to the 5th. If you're into nice wines you might have a great time! ;)

 

 

Oh, don't get me started. Hubby originally said he couldn't get those dates off from work and then after I booked the Dec 12th cruise he said it was ok...:mad:

 

I'd love to hear about the guest chef John Currence that is on board your sailing. A lot of folks cancelled and moved to our sailing and others because of large groups...but I think the programs being offered on the ship would be fun.

 

CC

[jdvmd]

Don't count on the vintage listed on the menu being what you actually get served. I was just on the Solstice and the menu listed the Gavi di Gavi I ordered as being 2006 and I actually was served an 08.

 

Yep, that has happened to us also but we spotted the discrepency and refused the bottle. Happened twice actually.

[WineDown17]

Yep, that has happened to us also but we spotted the discrepency and refused the bottle. Happened twice actually.

 

Happens all the time....on some bottles, not a big deal...but if i am ordering an opus one? I want the right vintage....

 

Call me crazy!:rolleyes:

 

One neat tip for wine lovers...on summit (not sure about other ships) in the Normandie, you can request to dine in the wine cellar...it is a small private room filled with all the really good wines.the sommelier took time explaining to uss all the really cool bottles they had on board...some upwards of 1k per bottle....he also told us where the key was if we wanted to grab a bottle....we assumed he was kidding, but wont say it wasnt tempting!

 

It also makes for a very private, romantic setting.

[curiouscat]

Thanks for the tip about the Summit... would like to hear about your experiences with the wine on the Eclipse next month....

 

 

CC

[Winedown2]

Thanks for the tip about the Summit... would like to hear about your experiences with the wine on the Eclipse next month....

 

 

CC

 

 

Will do!! (Same Winedown.. but on Hubby's computer! New alias)

[dexter99]

Interesting...but if you think about having "certified"sommeliers on all their ships would be a very expensive business proposition... I highly doubt that they go thru more than some wine course where they are handed some type of wine steward certification...

That's what a 'certified sommelier' is, someone who took a course and got a certificate. And I think you'd be surprised at how many people have it. Some of my local wine shops have 5 or 6. A wine steward has 72 hours of ISG training, to be a certified sommelier only takes another 200 hours/24 week course.

[HUNKY]

It pays to do a bit of research before your trip.

 

I noticed the Murphy Goode cabernet on the list for $65.

 

My local grocery store sells it for $5...